Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 675

Chapter 675: Chapter 675 - Taming the Fifth Year: Realize

"Ren?" Liu’s voice sounded distant, concerned, filtering through the haze of pain. "Brother, are you okay?"

"I’m fine," Ren lied, forcing air into his lungs with conscious effort. Forcing his expression into something he hoped was neutral, schooling his features through will alone. "Just a bit dizzy. Must be the exhaustion."

Liu didn’t seem convinced, concern written across his features, but he didn’t press the issue.

Because around them, the celebration continued.

Some noticed something had changed in his mana.

Larissa, Liora...

And Zhao, whose eyes narrowed from across the room. The professor watched him with an intensity suggesting he knew something was wrong, professional instinct recognizing distress despite Ren’s attempts to hide it.

But he said nothing.

And Ren closed his left eye for a moment. The illusion fragment had broken along with the bond, the crystal window shattering when its anchor was destroyed.

But the time had been sufficient to see, thanks to Ren’s enormously enhanced Perception allowing him to process information at speeds that made seconds feel like minutes.

And through it, in the Mantis’s last moments before the bond broke completely, he saw a chamber.

And on the other side, distant but visible through damaged optics failing but still functional, there was a door.

Enormous. Brilliant. Covered in runes that glowed with real white light, not dim like the others throughout the descent. These were active, powerful, functioning exactly as their creators had intended.

And beside the door stood something that made everything else fade into insignificance.

Ren’s heart sank.

A different pain reached his chest, not physical like when the bond broke but emotional, the kind that came from understanding things you wished you didn’t know.

Because there, beside the brilliant door, frozen in eternal reaching, was a statue.

Made of crystal.

Not carved, not artificial. The trauma of Dragarion that he’d been pushing aside while investigating crystallization emerged with force, old wounds reopening as new ones formed.

Another crystallized person. The posture was of desperate reaching, kneeling, one arm extended toward the door, fingers barely centimeters from touching it.

As if he’d been about to achieve something.

As if success had been so close that he could taste it.

And then time had stopped.

Eternally.

The door had two parts, two panels that met in the center. And on each panel there was a hollow space, receptacles designed for something specific.

One had a crystal embedded within it, glowing with light that pulsed like a heartbeat. The other was empty, waiting for its counterpart with the patience of centuries.

And the statue’s chest, the place where a human heart should beat, had a hollow space.

A void where something had been removed or perhaps had never been properly placed.

Sirius Starweaver’s chest, because it was obvious who it was, had been emptied of whatever crystal should have resided there.

The truth felt worse than Ren had imagined.

♢♢♢♢

Ren covered his mouth, feigning a yawn to hide his expression. He couldn’t let anyone see what he felt in this moment, couldn’t let them witness the comprehension spreading through his mind like poison. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

The horrible, impossible understanding of what had happened.

Sirius had made it that far... Had fought through thousands of mutants. Had descended ten levels guarded by increasingly powerful creatures, each floor a test of skill and determination.

And he’d reached the door, one that had stolen his own heart to place in the hollow of a door he’d somehow failed to reach completely.

Had he tried to open it?

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify